Baking With Bourbon
Bourbon — you can use it for more than just drinking. As a smooth, sweet, smokey beverage, bourbon has intensifying flavors to produce a truly decadent recipe, making it one of the best ingredients to add to desserts.
You can master desserts with bourbon in baked goods by using a Jim Beam bourbon baking recipe guide. Take your cooking skills up a notch by grilling with bourbon, creating flavorful appetizers, sides and entrees. Baking and grilling with bourbon master two of our favorite things — bourbon cooking and pellet grills.
Best Bourbon to Bake With| Bourbon Baking Recipes | Using Your Pellet Grill Like An Oven
Best Bourbon to Cook & Bake With
The biggest factor when cooking with bourbon in a recipe is its proof. In general, the higher the proof, the longer the cooking time required to burn off the alcohol and leave behind those pleasant vanilla-spice flavors.
Likewise, higher-proofed bourbons will also coagulate quickly, ruining dessert creams and sauces if added to the dish too early. Be sure to factor in longer, slower cooking times if using a higher-proof bourbon than a recipe calls for — or just stick with its exact recommendation.
Another thing to consider when choosing the best bourbon for cooking is whether it’s bourbon or rye. Bourbon tends to be sweeter due to being distilled from at least 51% corn with barley and rye making up the rest of the mash. On the other hand, rye whiskey is spicier because it’s distilled with a majority of rye, instead of corn. In some cases, like Maker’s Mark, manufacturers replace the rye in the mash with wheat, making it a sweeter option.
Test out your favorite bourbons with your favorite desserts to make your signature match. (We don’t judge!) Or, you can stick with these expert-approved pairings:
- 80 Proof Jim Beam: With a lower proof than most bourbons, Jim Beam’s flavor profile is approachable, with hints of honey and butterscotch. Plus, you can find it pretty much anywhere.
- 100 Proof Knob Creek: Knob Creek is a staple small-batch collection from Jim Beam. It’s perfect for getting the most flavor in your cooking, providing a well-rounded flavor profile.
- 90 Proof Knob Creek Smoked Maple: Knob Creek smoked with Hickory and Maple wood offers the perfect sweetness to your baking.
- 80 Proof Old Grand-Dad: Notably light, with hints of vanilla and baking spice and a thinner body.
- 90 Proof Maker’s Mark: A wheat bourbon, Maker’s Mark has a sweet, mouth-coating profile of caramel and butterscotch.
Baking & Cooking With Bourbon Recipes
Craving some sweet and savory recipes made with bourbon? We’ve got you covered with nine Jim Beam bourbon recipes for baking, cooking and grilling.
1. Smokey Bourbon Pecan Pie
If you love pecan pie, you’re in for a treat. Our smokey bourbon dessert pecan pie, though, takes this comfort fare to a whole new level — plus graduates your pellet smoker game.
Toasted pecans and a sticky-sweet caramel filling make this pie a hit. You can keep its filling from turning soupy by adding an extra egg or a tablespoon of cornstarch or flour to its mix prior to baking. Be careful though, as extra egg, cornstarch or flour can affect your pie’s taste.
2. Smoked Bourbon and Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding
Bread pudding and bourbon are a match made in heaven. The dig-in-your-spoon dessert is also incredibly versatile. Get creative and try your hand at a smoked maple bourbon dark chocolate bread pudding, which offers the decadent combination of dark chocolate, baking spices and smoky bourbon.
When making your bread pudding, use day-old bread such as brioche or challah, rather than a typical sandwich loaf. Brioche or challah tends to absorb flavors better, producing a sweeter and richer pudding.
3. Double Dark Chocolate Bourbon Brownies
For the dark chocolate fanatics, amaze your guests by whipping up a batch of double dark chocolate bourbon brownies. This recipe pairs the bittersweet richness of dark chocolate with the sharp flavors of your favorite bourbon. The ingredients work together to create the perfect soft, fudgy texture for addicting brownies. This recipe is excellent for adding a surprising twist to your signature brownies, creating a dessert your family and friends can’t wait to devour.
This recipe is very customizable, so you can adjust it to your preferences. Use whichever bourbon you prefer, allowing you to determine the strength of the flavor with your signature proof. If you want to tone down the intensity of the dark chocolate, you can substitute it for semi-sweet chocolate instead.
4. Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake
The addition of bourbon to a boozy pumpkin cheesecake breathes new life into the pumpkin spice flavor trend, deepening its notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. The creamy, decadent cheesecake filling smooths bourbon glaze’s kick, hitting all the major flavor notes and leaving you satisfied.
When making the cheesecake, stir your batter on a medium-slow mixer speed to prevent over-aerating, which tends to produce cracks in the cake as it bakes. Also, make sure to use full-fat cream cheese and sour cream for the best results.
5. Double Chocolate Bourbon Cupcakes
Bourbon does an excellent job of complementing chocolate in double chocolate bourbon cupcakes. Rather than fight the chocolate cake and frosting’s richness, bourbon uplifts and brightens it, keeping bites from getting too heavy. Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature before starting the recipe — including the bourbon.
6. Spiced Bourbon Apple Pie
Give a classic American dessert a creative twist with this spiced bourbon apple pie recipe. As a family favorite, this older sibling to the traditional apple pie is perfect for holidays. You’ll work the bourbon into the pie filling, allowing it to complement the warm baking spices and buttery crust and bring out the tang in the apples.
Some types of apples are better for baking than others. Braeburn, Honeycrisp or Jonagold apples are great options for pie, as their slices maintain their shapes while cooking yet still deliver that soft, sweet bite.
7. Bacon-Bourbon-Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Bacon, bourbon and chocolate — all in one recipe? If there’s too much of a good thing, it’s not this dessert. Serve bacon-bourbon chocolate chunk cookies warm, wowing friends and families with how well the sweet and salty flavors mix. Bourbon steps in at the end to mellow out the intense flavors, leaving a delightfully spiced finish.
Diced, thick-cut bacon and a lower-proofed bourbon are winners in this recipe, ensuring none of these ingredients outshine the others. Also, don’t throw out that bacon fat — you’ll need it!
8. Maple Bourbon Glazed Smoked Bacon
For the bacon fanatics, look no further than maple bourbon glazed smoked bacon. Whether you want to up your breakfast setup or add something new to your burgers, this bacon recipe will add a hint of smokey sweetness to your favorite crispy meat. With a pellet grill, you can slow cook your bacon for optimized flavor, so you can impress family and friends with your newest signature side dish.
Making this glazed bacon recipe is simple, so even new cooks can try their hand at it. All you have to do is prepare your bacon and let your pellet grill do the rest. You can sit back and relax while they cook, or you can impress your family and friends with a full-course meal that shows off your skills.
9. Jim Beam Pulled Pork
Bourbon barbecue is a classic. Serve it to your family and friends with this Jim Beam pulled pork. This pulled pork recipe will create a sweet and smokey entre that will quickly become a fan favorite with your family and friends.
Like the glazed bacon, the pulled pork is a slow-cooking recipe that will take the majority of the day to reach the perfect flavor levels. Prepare your food early in the day and you don’t have to worry about it until later. It’s that easy to make a delicious barbecue meal.
Using Your Pellet Grill Like an Oven
Pellet grills offer a unique, yet straightforward way to achieve that sweet-smokey balance signature to bourbon recipes. You can create any of the recipes above using your pellet grill, with several cooking pellet varieties replicating the ingredients themselves.
There are many advantages to baking with a pellet grill:
- Quick: Grills cook everything from cakes, cookies and pies in swift, straightforward timelines. With many of these dessert recipes, all you have to do is pop the prepared dish in the grill, then let it do its thing. Just set your pellet grill to the temperature you would set your oven to and you’re good to go!
- Convenient: With a pellet grill and bourbon-flavored pellets, you don’t even have to bust out your good bourbon. The pellets themselves replicate the flavor you’re going for. This alleviates many of the worries novice chefs have about using alcohol in recipes, from reducing the alcohol to pouring too much into the batter.
- Comfortable: Using a grill for baking means you don’t need to turn the oven on during hot summer days. You can enjoy your desserts — and a glass on the rocks — in far more comfortable conditions.
Learn More Cooking Techniques and Uses for Your Pellet Grill With Energex
Like bourbon, pellet grills have many applications you can test out, allowing you to get the most out of your investment. With a large collection of bourbon recipes available, you can create flavorful dishes with your pellet grill, impressing your family and friends. Beyond that, use your pellet grill to cook tasty steaks, chicken, vegetables, seafood and more — the options are endless!
At Energex, we are experts on pellet grills and their various uses, supplying high-quality pellets that take your cooking experience to the next level. Our pellets are Pellet Fuels Institute (PFI) certified, ensuring you are investing in only the best pellets and providing better care for your grill.
Explore our unique line of pellet grill pellets made for grilling, barbecuing, baking and more — plus recipes from our pellet grill cookbook.